Let's get straight to the point: I really like the 2015 Ford Fusion Titanium Energi. It's a handsome sedan that's efficient to boot. The dashboard tech is good but not great, but the available driver aid tech -- including automatic parallel parking -- is quite good for the price.
However, the Energi raises more questions about your personal driving habits than answers and hard numbers when compared to its non-plug-in counterpart. That's because though your mileage may have always varied, it's likely never been so dependent on not just how you drive, but also when and where.
Fuel economics
A large part of what's likeable about the Fusion Energi can be found beneath its hood. The hybrid sedan is powered by a combination of 2.0-liter Atkinson cycle four-cylinder gasoline engine and an 88 kW permanent magnet AC synchronous electric motor. The gasoline engine is good for 141 horsepower and 129 pound-feet of torque, and the electric motor supplies 118 horsepower and 117 pound-feet of torque. However, because they make peak power in different ways, total system output adds up to only 188 horsepower.
The EPA estimates that the hybrid is good for 40 mpg in the city, 36 highway mpg, and 38 combined mpg. However, with a relatively light foot, I never finished a trip with the instrumentation indicating below 42 mpg.
That's before you factor in the J1772 plug-in port located on the front driver's side fender. Plug into a 240-volt charging station for 2.5 hours (or a 120-volt wall outlet for 7 hours) to add up to about 20 miles of electric range to the beginning of any given trip. The Ford's 20 mile EV range is only about half that of the Chevrolet Volt, but double the 11 mile EV range of the Plug-in Prius. According to the EPA, the fully electric miles are stated at 95 city mpge, 81 highway mpge, or 88 combined mpge.
Your actual mileage will probably end up somewhere in that ludicrous range between 38 and 88 mpg. That's because, depending on your driving habits and charging rituals, those 20 gasoline miles could only add a slight boost or make a huge difference in the Fusion's efficiency. Traditionally, it's how you drove that determined where you landed on the Your Mileage May Vary scale. With a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV), where you drive and how far plays an even larger part.
My daily commute, for example, from Oakland to our offices in San Francisco is only about 11 miles each way. With a 20-mile EV range and the ability to plug in during the day at CNET's offices, it's conceivable that I could get to and from work all week using only a minimal amount of fuel -- if any. However, you may be a driver who commutes 80 miles round-trip, so the EV range become a smaller percentage of your total drive time -- even less so if those are highway miles, when the electric engine isn't at its most efficient. So, your efficiency numbers may start to drop back down into the 40-mpg range by the end of the day. But if your office installs a charging station that you can use during the day, then you can bump up the vehicle efficiency for the drive home. As is the case with the Plug-in Prius and the Chevy Volt, the efficiency math gets very complicated when you factor in the human element and availability of places to plug in.
One of the trade-offs for this electric range is trunk space. The Energi's larger 7.6 kWh lithium ion battery pack takes up pretty much the entire trunk, reducing the volume to 8.2 cubic feet -- down from the hybrid's 12 cubic feet and almost half of the nonhybrid's 16 cubic feet. Because of the battery, the Fusion loses its rear seat pass-through, making transporting long items tricky, and it gains a good deal of weight. The Energi tips the scales at 3,913 pounds, but thanks to its torque-rich powertrain and well-tuned suspension, it feels significantly lighter on its toes.
It may be an efficient mill, but the Fusion Energi's engine sounds just terrible. Under hard acceleration, it hums loudly and tunelessly. Flatten the gas pedal and the Fusion will surge forward, but the engine won't start up until about a second or later. Then, for a moment, the revs and acceleration built together, but at a certain point the engine just hangs at a fixed speed, even as the vehicle speed continues to build. This disconnect between the engine sound you're hearing and the acceleration you feel is a bit off-putting.
Despite the sound, the combined efforts of the gasoline and electric motors can create respectable amounts of acceleration when called upon. Zero-to-60 happens in a hair under 8 seconds, which isn't bad for a vehicle that weighs this much and posts such high efficiency numbers. And though the engine's revs bounce around, rise and fall, the electric-assisted acceleration is constant and confident, and the transitions between gasoline and electric power is smooth and seamless.
MyFord Touch
The MyFord Touch cabin technology suite has always been a bit of a mixed bag. The Fusion Energi is no exception. The system can be slow and laggy for some functions, but smooth and responsive for others. It baffles me that the map loads so slowly that you can watch the chunks of data pop onto the screen, yet the voice command is nearly instantaneous and extremely accurate.
Some functions are organized logically, following the quadrant shortcut system that puts quick links to the phone, navigation, audio, and climate controls in the four corners of the screen. Other functions, such as the charging options that let the driver schedule the plug-in hybrid's charging, are hidden under tiny, difficult-to-hit buttons at the bottom of the screen.
Let's get straight to the point: I really like the 2015 Ford Fusion Titanium Energi. It's a handsome sedan that's efficient to boot. The dashboard tech is
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